


Sleepless Nights

by Ally_Futuras



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-30 01:36:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15086174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ally_Futuras/pseuds/Ally_Futuras
Summary: Dick wasn't as bad as they made him out to be. Tossing someone into a psychiatric ward would not keep the monsters from coming out at night.





	1. Chapter 1

He was a good human being. Always did the right thing. But now, he was different. More hostile.

"No, fuck you! I'm not taking those pills!"

"Mr. Grayson, you need to take your medication, please don't make this any harder."

Dick was surrounded by two men, both dressed in white from top to bottom. White shirt, white pants, white shoes. A woman was also in front of him. A nurse. She had on the identical color on her own dress, matching with her other colleagues who also wore white.

She had a small cup full of medicine in one hand and a cup of water in the other.

"Mr. Grayson, you need to take these. They'll help you sleep," she informed him.

Fuck it. He didn't want to sleep anyway. All he had were nightmares.

The nurse sighed. She put the medication aside before pushing a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear.

"Boys," she looked at them both and nodded her head and soon walked off.

The two men grinned before slowly walking toward Dick. The man could over power them only slightly. He was drugged everyday and soon lost the strength and stamina he once had.

"Now, boys-"

"Grayson, you're ours now," one said before tackling him to the ground.

That was the life of a mental patient. Being drugged for no good reason every single day.

He was told that the nightmares he had at night were not normal in any sense. But they only got worse as the days went by.

Dick was finally taken into the hospital once they found him almost jumping off a building at night.

"I'm an acrobat! A great crime fighter! I'm not sick, or- or deranged," he'd tell them every day.

Group therapy was one of the few times he could feel normal. Compared to the other patients of course.

Others were in for far worse. Killing their own pets, undressing themselves in the middle of day at a park, Dick felt like the only sane person.

"Now it's your turn, Richard," the young red haired nurse told him.

They all sat in a circle. Dick had his arms crossed over his chest, the white pajama they'd give the patients made his shoulders itch.

"My name is Dick Grayson," he said and stared the nurse down, "I'm an acrobat. I'm in the entertainment business. I shouldn't be here," he spoke sternly.

The nurse smiled politely, "Richard-"

"Dick," he corrected, "Or Mr. Grayson, if you'd prefer," he then gave her a fake, yet polite smile.

"Mr. Grayson," she began to say, her voice gentle and kind, "Why is it that you refuse the name 'Richard'?"

The man shrugged, he looked back at the nurse who was waiting for his reply. The other patients were either listening intently or not caring at all.

"Richard is my legal name," he answered simply before looking away, "He never called me 'Richard'," he mumbled under his breath.

It was night time once more. Which only meant that he would have to take his medicine. Get beat up by the men who restrain him and inject the medicine with a syringe or he could simply take the pills along with the water.

Dick liked neither of those things.

Eventually, he got smart and hid the pills under his tongue before drinking his water. In just a matter or days, his matress was filled with pills he'd hidden inside through a hole.

Every night, his nightmares came along. Some were worse than others. And on rare occasions, they would begin as innocent dreams.

He'd be flying through the city. Wearing a suit made for fighting, Dick went by a different name when the stars came out.

But his dreams would soon turn sour. At first only simple mishaps would happen. He'd slip and fall while swinging through the city, in a matter of seconds he'd be splattered across the sidewalk.

Eventually they turned worse. He'd be pushed down, begin to get beat to a pulp, thrown down a tall skyscraper only to meet his untimely death with the oncoming traffic.

"What do you think these dreams mean? Perhaps something that happened when you were young, did you-"

Dick interrupted the man, "We've been over this before, Doc."

It was the hospitals shrink. His receding hairline full of gray hairs. His wrinkles would show nothing but age and stress from his job. The thin glasses on his nose made Dick want to stab them through his eye.

The doctor helped only those he deemed worthy of help. Only the nut jobs who still had some chance of leaving the hospital sane once more.

They sat across from each other in Dick's room. It's walls were filled with few posters and pictures. Dick was laying on his bed while the doctor sat in a chair beside him.

The doctor's lap was full with the clipboard he'd jot down notes into, his bag sat next to his left leg, full of more various things.

"Do you think it has something to do with that? On your wall," the doctor motioned to a poster on the wall.

Dick looked over and stared at the poster, "The Flying Graysons," he then looked back at the doctor, serious looking expression, "Would it explain the demons hiding in my closet? The ones who drag their nails across my floor as I sleep?"

The doctor sighed once again, he pulled off his glasses and set them inside his shirt pocket before taking his clipboard and setting it aside.

"Alright, Dick," he told the younger man, "Tell me what you think."

Was he for real? What did he have up his sleeve? All shrinks did was give them more medication to take. Well, it's worth a shot to talk to this guy.

"What I think? I think this is all bullshit, that's what I think," he replied while tucking his arms behind his head, "I had a bad experience as a child, I get nightmares and now I'm in a loony bin." 

The older man nodded his head and then grabbed his things before standing up. His dark coat hung loosely over his arm while his other hand carried his bag.

"I know another man, has a similar case to yours. He lived on the streets as a child, now he's locked in with the more aggressive patients," the doctor said as he began to walk towards the door, "He also experiences dreams of flying. And he believes there is a demon he must kill."

Dick sat up, ready to see the doctor leave. Was there really another guy like him? One who was going through the same thing?

"What- What's his name?"

The doctor stopped before going out the door, "Todd. He's a  _real_  nutcase. You're fine, Dick. You need some good natural sleep."

That night, he had a nightmare. One he couldn't wake up from.

Like always, he ran into trouble, started being chased and he was stuck in a dark room. Which is when he wakes up.

"Son of a bitch," Dick whispered to himself as he stood up on his bed, ready to attack anything.

It was past midnight, possibly even 2:00 in the morning. It was pitch black as he looked out from his caged window.

He knew there was an entity in his room. Something demonic. But he couldn't tell anyone this. He'd only be given more medication. But it was just too much to bare.

The next few nights were spent almost the same. Dick stayed on his bed, a pencil, pen, anything he could use as a weapon would be in his hand.

"I know you're here," Dick would say into the dark of his room, "I know you're here!"

One night he awoke with a strangling sensation on his throat. The young man kicked his feet and grabbed his throat as he suffocated, his eyes wide while he tried sitting up.

He was finally able to breath in air, swallowing and taking large gulps. He gasped and looked all around his room. But like always, no one was present.

"Why don't you come out?", Dick asked, his voice desperate and angry, "You fucking coward!"

The next day would be the last day that Dick would see his shrink.

They sat in his room, Dick sitting cross legged on his bed while the doctor sat in a chair beside him.

"You wake the patients in the middle of the night with your screaming," he informed the younger man, "And your eyes are bloodshot red."

It was true. He was a mess. Dick's hair was now a sloppy, tangled lump of black. His face was stained and smudged with dust and tears. His lips a pale color which matched his now wrinkled pajamas.

"Tell me something I don't know, Doc," he replied.

The doctor wrote in a notebook he had, his clipboard nowhere to be seen.

"You look like a corpse," he commented simply, "If you have nothing you want to talk about, Dick, we can always cancel today's session."

This caught his attention. The young man sat up, his eyes droopy and dark, "Thanks, Doc."

With that being said, the doctor grabbed his belongings and started towards the door.

"Doc," Dick spoke before going over to the doctor and embracing him, "You're not such a bad guy, thanks for your help."

The doctor smiled, gave him a friendly nod and was on his way out.

Dick made sure he was out of the hallways before running back up and into his bed. He brought out a set of keys from his pocket and eyed them with a psychotic grin on his face.

"I'm getting the fuck out of here. Tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

Dick knew the entire ward like the back of his hand. The man had been there for years. He knew every exit, every window, every crack and crevice on every single one of the pale walls. Most of the windows were barred and inescapable but Dick knew which were loosened over the years from harsh storms.

He'd been planning it for some days now. After his shrink had mentioned the other patient who's case was similar to his own, Dick began his investigation. At first he started working his charm on few of the female nurses around the ward, making sure to smile and pretend to take his medicine, asking them about their day. That was how Dick found out where the "monster ward" was located. 

The staff had named it as such after the patient's inhabiting that certain ward. Todd would be among those many monsters. 

Dick had been made to mop the halls near the front offices on account of good behavior. It was then that his believed training came into action. He was able to sneak into the records room when no nurse was around and swiped his monster friends file. 

"I got you now, Todd," Dick chuckled to himself that night as he looked over the file.

Jason P. Todd. The reason behind his residency at the ward was for having been found at various places at the wrong time. First at his parents' murder sight with a butchers knife in hand. The boy had been only ten years old. At twelve he bit the fingers off his foster fathers hand on Thanksgiving. At fourteen his foster mother found him caring for the corpse of a bat.

 Each year he would continue to attempt an escape from every foster family and each year he would be found on the streets once more with an unlikely winged victim as his new toy. 

Sooner than later, Jason was put in a straight jacket as opposed to being behind bars or on the streets. When he first arrived, the large man had given one of the male nurses a concussion, another obtained a broken collarbone and bitten ear. 

Dick couldn't believe it, "You must be a total nutcase," he continued flipping through every page. 

Each page of his file had a different photograph along with a different story. The first were of a scruffy haired child, all equally bloody with dirt smudged on his face. As he grew older, shoulders wider, the boy grew into an undeniable killing machine man. His face void of any emotion in each of the colorless photographs. 

Few mugshots took the place of adolescent pictures as well. 

Dick was now sure he had found his muscle to help him escape. But what about the stories.

Jason was brought in after hanging a man from his feet off a skyscraper, claiming he was the monster in his dreams. They'd shot him down before he could let the man fall to his death. 

"Richard, would you like some bacon with your eggs?" 

The female nurses were always far more kind than the male nurses. Dick had to force out a smile, "No thank you. unless you're referring to a different kind of bacon for my eggs of course. You are looking splendid today, nurse."

The other patients were fond of Dick. He treated them nicely and on good days he would lift their spirits. 

"Say, nurse," Dick began as he stood from his seat in the cafeteria, calling out to the nurse before she could disappear behind the kitchen doors, "Think we could get some dessert in this shit storm of a cafeteria?"

The nurse, a nice blonde woman with a short curly bob turned on her heal,  her white dress swaying as she smiled and went back to the table filled with patients, "Richard, you remember what happened last time we brought in ice cream," she was now eye level with the man, close enough to make his heart skip a beat.

Dick grinned, "And you remember the last time your cow of a colleague called me Richard."

The table burst in laughter. Dick himself hadn't believed himself to be that funny but his fellow patients found him hilarious. Even old man Philip had started laughing through his rotten teeth. 

"Quiet! Quiet!" the nurse called out.

At that moment was when Dick dropped his plate in an exaggerated laughter among the other men, "Gentlemen, let's all calm down now! Oh, nurse, I'm sorry. I'll clean this right up!" 

The custodial closet was around the corner from the monster ward. Dick had visited it once before. The male nurses on that wing took their breaks very seriously. Once every two hours not counting lunch break of course.

Dick smiled as he ran his hand along the cream colored walls of the hallways. He reached the monster ward, he knew exactly which room he was searching for. Taking a folded piece of paper from his upper breast pocket on his now food stained white shirt, Dick knelt down and slid it underneath the door he had found. 

He made sure to give a light knock on the blue tinted frame whispering between the creaks, "Be prepared, _Red Hood_."

There was a storm brewing. More guards and nurses had been sent home that day. Dick's meeting with his shrink had gone as planned. All he did now was wait.

As usual, he was given his medication. Dick was locked in his bedroom and he was alone once more with the monsters hidden in the cold shadows. He held on tightly to the sharpened pencil in his hand. 

He was quick with his actions, making sure the guards and nurses were far from his hallway. The man pressed his ear to the door. Once he was sure, Dick took the keys he had hidden within his pillow and carefully unlocked his bedroom door. 

With a light  _click_ he was free to roam hell.

There was a gated door-frame at every corner. Yet Dick had the keys to the world. 

It all had gone according to plan. A few minor hiccups having been stumbled upon but fixed just as soon as they had appeared. The thunder and rain kissing the barred windows covered all faint sounds from inside paradise. 

Dick arrived at the monster ward, his white shirt stained and damp from sweat. His whole being shivered. Not a nurse or guard in sight. 

_"Why should I help you?"_

_"The bat. We need to fix what's been wronged."_

_"I get to do it. When the time comes. I get the kill."_

_"Deal."_

The two were a perfect duo. Jason found it easier to grab a nurse by surprise, wring their neck waiting for the _crack_ before their body went limp. He was strong. Ruthless. A tank with dead eyes. Dick on the other hand preferred to have fun. He was faster. More agile and toyed with the nurses, giving them false hope of freedom. 

Not a single member of staff would walk away that night. 

Although he had created the perfect escape plan, Dick had missed one stupid detail. 

"No exit key, Red."

By the following week both patients shared a room. Both were shackled in bed at night. Both had the same doctor. And both had the same visitor.

"Bruce."

The wealthy man was graying, inches away from death, he was growing old as his tired face shown years of hard work. Both patients sat side by side in the visiting room.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce spoke solemnly, "I'm sorry for putting you both through this."

Dick's shackled ankles began to itch, he kept a sick look on his face as he kept his eyes on the man in front of him. Jason at his side held his chained wrists behind his back, his teeth sinking into the soft skin of his inner cheek all the while he fought off the urge to attack.

"Damian has found a lead on Scarecrow. A new antidote to test. You might be able to come home after all this time."

Jason spit on the floor beside him, leaning his head back in disgust, his eyesight barely coming near his former mentor. Dick simply refused to even look at the man at that point. 

"Just come back to me, boys. Wake up from this terrible illusion."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ask and you shall receive. I wrote the first part a little over a year ago and had a plan for a second half but completely forgot it because uhh time is a thing. But I did try my best on a somewhat different ending. I simply ended it with the two brothers having been poisoned by scarecrow and basically everything they witnessed is all in their head. A lazy way of covering plot holes I suppose haha. Still I hope you enjoyed it, I churned up this final chapter within the hour and did my best. 
> 
> Have an awesome day as always!

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea to continue this story as a two chapter short. But it also could be read as a simple one-shot. Let me know what you think.


End file.
